Our confidentiality promise

Confidentiality means not telling anyone else about what you’ve said. So whatever you say will be just between you and Childline. And you can feel safe talking to us, knowing that no one else will find out. But sometimes, if we’re worried about your safety, we may need to get you help.

when we might need to tell someone

you're being hurt by someone in a position of trust who has access to other children like a teacher or police officer

you tell us that you're seriously harming another person.

Keeping you safe

We're here for you to get support with any problem you have. You can even talk about things you wouldn't normally tell anyone. That’s why it’s really important that you know we won’t tell anyone else what you’ve said to us.

Breaking a young person’s confidentiality is not something we do unless we have to. We'll always think about this carefully so if there's anything you can do to help us know you're safe, please contact us as soon as possible.

If you want someone else to know about what's happening to you, like a police officer, teacher or social worker, you can talk to a Childline counsellor about what you'd like to do next.

We'd need to know more information about you, so would ask you questions like your full name and address, your date of birth and the name of your school.

Depending on what you've told us, we might need to ask you one of these questions or maybe more. If you need time to think about whether or not you want us to tell someone else, just let us know. You can always get in touch with us again another time.

We understand that there's a difference between feeling suicidal and actually trying to die. Childline will only break confidentiality when you're having suicidal thoughts if we believe that it is likely that you'll act on them.

This may not always mean you'll act on them today. It could be that you've told us that you'll do this in the future. If we believe that you plan to do what you're telling us then we would need to tell someone like the police or ambulance services to get help to you.

If you're able to show us that although you're feeling suicidal, you aren't seriously thinking of or planning suicide as an option at this time, then we'll not break confidentiality.

It’s not enough just to tell us you're not going to do it if everything else you've said shows that actually you are really in danger. We need to genuinely understand whether you're at risk or not. You can help us to do this by being as clear as you can about your feelings and plans throughout the conversation.

telling us about you

You can tell us as much or as little as you want to. Sometimes a Childline counsellor will ask if you want to give a first name, but it’s up to you if you want to do this.

Just because we do know your name, it doesn’t mean that we'd tell someone else about what's happening to you, no matter how much we know about you. You can always make up a name if you don’t want to give us your real one. We'd ask you to use the same name if you do get in touch with us again so that we know it’s you.

Phone numbers and IP addressesThere may be times when we're very worried about your or someone else's safety and we need to tell someone about what's happening. If this is the case, we might use your phone number or IP address (a number used by your internet provider) to get help to you.

If we don’t have those, we work with the police and phone company to get your phone number or IP address. We'd always try and talk to you first, before we pass this information on.

Calls are not recorded and your number won't show up on any phone bills. Counsellors write some notes about what you tell them. They also keep notes for emails and 1-2-1 counsellor chat and save copies of what you’ve said in a chat or email. These notes stay safe at Childline. They keep notes to help them understand what you’re going through and support you if you contact us again. It can also make it easier for us to get help to you if you’re in danger.

There are lots of different Childline bases in the country, and you may speak to a counsellor in any one of these places. We make sure that other Childline bases can see your notes if they need to, so you don’t need to go through everything again. Childline supervisors may listen in to your phone call, or supervise your 1-2-1 counsellor chat to make sure that we can help you in the best way.

What happens if we tell someone

Breaking confidentiality can be very difficult. There are lots of things we have to think about to work out whether we have to pass your details on to someone else or not. It may be that at the beginning of your contact with us you explain how you're feeling but as the call or chat goes on, it becomes clearer that you're likely to act on these feelings.

Counsellors have to look at your whole conversation, how unsafe you sound and how likely it is you will be in danger when you finish talking to them. That’s why a counsellor might tell you it will be confidential at the beginning but then as you tell them more that shows that you are in danger, they can’t keep that promise anymore.

After we've told someoneYou might feel like it’s your fault and that you or other people might get into trouble. We understand that it can be really hard to talk about certain things and to share what you’re going through.

After we've broken confidentiality we'll contact the people involved to ask for feedback about what happened. They may tell us what happened afterwards as well as other information about you like your name.

We'll always try to let you know if we need to break confidentiality. We want to help you in the best way and support you with what you're going through.

Some things that might happen:

your details are passed to people who'll be able to get help to you, like the ambulance service

we may ask the police to come and check, or do something to make sure that you're safe. For example, if you've run away and are lost by yourself, we may need to ask the police for help

if you’ve told us that someone younger than you is in danger, we may need to get them help. Sometimes the only way of doing that will be to contact you and ask you for more details. It may be the police that help us with this

we might tell Social services to arrange to speak to you and see how they can help you. They would want to protect you and other young people.

Your questions

We asked you about our confidentiality promise. Some of you said that you weren’t really sure when your confidentiality would be broken. And some said it made you angry when we told someone what you said to a counsellor.

If we ever have to break confidentiality or tell someone about your situation to get help to you, we'll always listen to how you feel. We'll also continue to support you and help you find ways to cope. Remember that you can always contact us again, even after we've tried to get help to you.

If you tell us that you're being abused, hurt or treated badly. And tell us that it’s also happening to your younger brother, sister or other young person, we'll want to do something to keep you all safe. Sometimes this means telling someone like an adult who could help you. For example, the police, ambulance or social services, so that you can get help and support.

Examples of when we'll need to break confidentiality or tell someone about your situation to get you help:

‘My dad threw my 3 year old brother across the room.’

‘My mum is not feeding my young sister who is 2 years old.’

‘I am 10 and my younger brother has been left at home all night by himself. He’s 4.’

‘My older brother left a bottle of vodka in his room and my six year old younger sister has been drinking it.'

‘I’m being sexually abused by my father and I also think it’s happening to my younger sister, she’s three.’

‘My grandfather had sex with me and he also had sex with my sister who has a learning difficulty, she’s got down's syndrome.'

We'll be here for you and we want to support you and your brothers or sisters. Sometimes this means telling someone even if you don’t want us to. We'll do this to keep you safe and help you in the best way.

If you tell us that you or someone else is being hurt or feeling worried about the way a person in a position of trust is treating you, we'll want to help you. A person in a position of trust is someone who's responsible for children, for example, a teacher, sports coach, religious leader, police officer or doctor.

We will:

listen and want to try to understand what is happening to you

ask you questions because we’d be worried about you and other children

want to find out if other young people were in danger, or were being hurt, so we could find a way to get them help.

Examples of when we may need to break confidentiality or tell someone about your situation to get you help:

‘A head teacher hit me.’

‘A sports coach touched me on my private parts. ‘

‘A doctor kissed me on the mouth.’

‘I saw my friend being kicked by a form tutor. ‘

My friend told me that he’d been having sex with a teacher.’

We'll support you with whatever you’re going through and we’d want to keep you and other young people safe at all times.

If you told us that you or another young person was in a dangerous situation or was worried about safety, we'll help you.

Things we'll do:

ask you questions about your situation and try to find the best way to keep you safe

if we're unable to ask you enough questions, or don't feel that you're able to keep yourself safe. For example, if you were drunk, had a weapon or were out by yourself, then we'd want to contact emergency services to get help to you. We would do this even if you asked us not to tell anyone. This is to make sure you get help

we'd support you and carry on helping you with what you're going through.

Examples of when we may need to break confidentiality or tell someone about your situation to get you help:

‘I’ve got a bottle of tablets and they're on my bedside table. I’m not going to overdose but I’m keeping the tablets next to me.’

‘I’m feeling suicidal and wanted to jump off a bridge. I’m not going to jump but I’m standing on the edge of a bridge now.’

‘I’ve run away from home and I’m lost. I think I’m safe but it’s almost midnight and I think two men are following me.’

We're here to support you. Sometimes people might not realise how much danger they're in. We'll always try to keep you safe and help you understand your situation better.

If you tell us anything that leads us to believe that you'll seriously hurt someone else or commit a crime against someone. And that you'd not be able to stop yourself without help, we may need to find a way to protect the person.

This could be:

if you were planning revenge on another group because you had been attacked

if you're being bullied and you were planning to seriously hurt the person who bullies you

if you wanted to kill someone.

Things we would do:

ask you some questions to better understand your situation and support you

help you think about what might happen if you did what you were planning

help you think about your future as well as how certain things could affect you and your family or friends.

listen to you and look at ways to support you

find ways to help and support the person you've told us about.

Examples of when we may need to break confidentiality or tell someone about your situation to get you help:

‘I’ve had enough of being beaten by my stepbrother, I’m going to kill him’

‘I want to have sex with my neighbour but she doesn’t want to, I’m going to make her have sex with me.’

‘My teacher doesn’t do anything to stop the bullies so I’m going to attack my teacher after school.’